Hindel Kidz 10: Third Time's A Charm
Hindel Kidz 10
Third Time’s A Charm
The autumn days grew shorter. The maple trees turned bright colors and the wind shook them dropping lots of yummy leaves and apples on the ground. The goats loved leaves and also gnawed at the apples. The cats batted the apples around with their paws and chased the leaves. In October 2006, Jack had finally sold the two little heathens.
Porsche was going to have babies for the third time. She was due in January 2007.
“I think Porsche is going to have a single,“ Sven guessed
“I am not going to guess, since I was wrong last year,” Jack replied. But he also thought there was no way Porsche was going to have just one baby given her record.
As it turned out, Nibby and Pearl were both expecting babies. Once a goat is expecting a baby, they aren’t supposed to be in love again.
Grace could tell Pearl was getting bigger, but she still wasn’t sure on Nibby. When Sven came home one morning, he told her Nibby’s baby wasn’t okay for the fourth time in a row.
“It was born too early. I don‘t even know if it was a boy or girl,” he said.
Grace felt sorry for Nibby. Nibby just wasn’t meant to have kids. Jack had decided not to let her have any more babies.
Porsche was supposed to have her babies on January 21st. Sven thought she might have the babies early. Jack had her having the babies on the due date and Grace said it would be next week before she had them. She had always been a week late before.
When Sven and Grace were up there feeding on the 23rd, they put Porsche over in the pen by herself just incase. It seemed to Grace, Porsche was acting a little different than normal. She only ate a couple bites of apple when usually she wanted all the apples she could get. Her belly was really low to the ground. Grace thought it looked like she was about to pop. She wasn’t as determined to see Porsche have the babies, but she still hoped to be there when it happened. Jack said he would call down if there were any signs. Sven’s birthday was on January 24th so Grace kept teasing him, “Wouldn’t it be neat if Porsche had the babies on your birthday?”
The morning of the 24th, Porsche had been off in the corner of the pen by herself and was making soft, little noises. Jack put her in the birthing pen since he had to go and help out at the meat house. Sven and Grace stopped on their way back from town since Sven knew she wanted to check on Porsche. They were supposed to go to Patty’s (Sven’s mother) for his birthday supper and Grace was worried Porsche would have the babies while they were over there.
The first words out of Sven’s mouth when he looked in the pen were, “Uh-oh.”
Porsche had already had twins and Grace didn’t get to see it. They were both still all wet so she had just had them. Sven went inside to call Jack to find out what they needed to do. Grace stayed out there with Porsche and turned on the heat lamp. While she was waiting for Sven to come back, Porsche had a third baby. She had triplets again! And Grace finally got to see one being born.
“Hey, one is better than none,” she said.
Porsche didn’t even cry. Sven came back with paper towels because Jack said to just keep rubbing them and dry them off. Porsche had two girls and a boy. With trying to dry off three little crying triplets, Grace didn’t see how humans who have twins or triplets do it. Sven basically let her dry off all of them; something she had never done before. Charlotte sent out some cloth towels. They would work better then paper towels. They thought Jack would have been up there as soon as Sven told him about Porsche, but he didn’t show up until later on. He thought they could handle it.
All the triplets were black with a little bit of white on their ears just like the first set. The first girl was a squalor, the boy’s ears were a little floppy and the third one was pulling herself around using her front legs. Grace was worried something was wrong with her back legs.
“We should call her Scooter,” Grace said
It could have been the way she was laying inside Porsche. She had come out back feet first. Grace felt some special for her because she was the one Grace had seen being born. The first girl and the boy had figured out how to eat so Sven and Grace went inside for a while since it was cold and windy.
When Jack showed up, they didn’t tell him Porsche had triplets. He was bit surprised. He went out and tried to lift the third one up on her back legs. He called the place where he got Elmer to see if they knew of anything he should try. The book only said what to do if the front legs didn’t work. The lady at Rolling Hills said, “ Keep the baby warm and pinch the back legs and see if she responds. Also give all three their first shot.”
What a first day or life for them.
The next day, the baby was hobbling around a little bit. Grace would put her hind legs under her and hold her up. She would take about three steps and fall. She would then try so hard to get back up. Grace was pretty sure she would be okay. She was a fighter and so determined.
Grace had decided to call her Lucki instead of Scooter. When Grace went back up to help feed, Lucki was hobbling around a little more. It made her happy to see Lucki standing. The next day, Lucki was walking and jumping like nothing had been wrong. Grace would rather her be okay and sold, then not be able to walk very well. She would have taken care of her no matter what. Since Lucki was able to walk now, Grace was not able to tell them apart anymore. All she knew was one girl was a really sweetheart. When she held her, she liked to nuzzle her chin.
Sven came up with the name Black Velvet for the first girl and Grace wanted to call the boy, Magic, short for Black Magic. Jack started calling him Bud and it just stuck. He was the friendliest goat ever. If the neighbors were outside, he would go over to see them. One time, one of the neighbors was lying on the ground weeding his flowerbed and all of a sudden he felt four little feet on his back. Scared the neighbor half to death. Bud just wanted to say hi. He also liked to head butt hands, legs and his sisters. One time, Grace got down on all fours and tried to head butt him back exactly like a real goat would and he ran away from her.
Charlotte called Bree to let her know about Porsche. Grace didn’t think she should have. Bree never cared about the goats. When Savannah came to see them, she said, “I want one and I am going to name it after me.”
Grace knew Savannah wasn’t going to get one, but she still didn’t like hearing her say that.
Now, Porsche has had a total of eight kids. When a registered goat has ten kids or more a plus sign is added after her name. Grace thought Porsche could definitely have been one of them if she was registered.
What a birthday gift for Sven!!!
